הרהורי החשבונות–Meditation 1, “All the world”

In its entirety, all the world
is a too-narrow bridge
and the key
is to not be afraid
at all.

(Attributed to Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav)

Hebrew text taken from Kol Haneshama–Prayerbook for the Days of Awe (Elkins Park, PA: The Reconstructionist Press, 1999), p. 48.  Lineation and translation by M. Salomon.  Image: perilous crossing by Tangent~Artifact, here sometimes

Watermelon and the Red Knight

Video kudos: twitvid

Anne Sexton–Welcome Morning

WELCOME MORNING
There is joy
in all:
in the hair I brush each morning,
in the Cannon towel, newly washed,
that I rub my body with each morning,
in the chapel of eggs I cook
each morning,
in the outcry from the kettle
that heats my coffee
each morning,
in the spoon and the chair
that cry “hello there, Anne”
each morning,
in the godhead of the table
that I set my silver, plate, cup upon
each morning.

All this is God,
right here in my pea-green house
each morning
and I mean,
though often forget,
to give thanks,
to faint down by the kitchen table
in a prayer of rejoicing
as the holy birds at the kitchen window
peck into their marriage of seeds.

So while I think of it,
let me paint a thank-you on my palm
for this God, this laughter of the morning,
lest it go unspoken.

The Joy that isn’t shared, I’ve heard,
dies young.

–Anne Sexton

Image: mornings by malloreigh

Pythagorean Meditation on Death

רחל אסתר בת מרדכי ואײדלע–תנצב״ה

‘Nec species sua cuique manet, rerumque novatrix
ex aliis alias reparat natura figuras:
nec perit in toto quicquam, mihi credite, mundo,
sed variat faciemque novat, nascique vocatur
incipere esse aliud, quam quod fuit ante, morique
desinere illud idem. cum sint huc forsitan illa,
haec translata illuc, summa tamen omnia constant.
Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book XV, ll. 252-258

Nothing retains its form; new shapes from old.
Nature, the great inventor, ceaselessly
contrives.  In all creation, be assured,
there is no death—no death, but only change
and innovation;  what we people call birth
is but a different new beginning; death
is but to cease to be the same.  Perhaps
this may have moved to that and that to this,
yet still the sum of things remains the same.
Translation by A.D. Melville